So, I actually like celebrating New Year's, and making resolutions. (I think most of the bad reputation of resolutions comes from folks making ones that are vague or unrealistic, or ones that they have no intention of putting in the effort for -- or thinking of them as all-or-nothing.)

On that note, here's how I did on my resolutions from 2015:(1) Eliminate the rest of my gaming backlog, not counting anything new. (MOSTLY DONE)(2) Find new venue to improve speaking/writing abilities in Japanese. (NOT DONE)(3) Post regularly on message boards. (DONE)(4) Revise non-game sections of LunarNET. (NOT DONE)(5) Tackle the unanswered emails in my inbox (NOT DONE)...so, weighting these by importance, I'd say I'm around 60% (that's not counting accomplishments not included in my resolutions). Which... is actually a pretty good year, to be honest.

So, here are my resolutions for 2016. I'm splitting this up into three categories: Language, Online, and Seriously:Language:(1) Japanese: Find venues to practice speaking and/or writing (with emphasis on formal business correspondence). Pass N1 by the end of the year.(2) Spanish: Practice enough to regain fluency by April.(3) Bengali: Begin learning Bengali by May. Be able to read/write and have simple conversations by the end of the year.Online:(4) Respond to, archive, or delete all old emails in my inboxes.(5) Revise all 16 non-game sections of LunarNET.Seriously:(6) Buy a house. Yes, seriously.

If I get 4/6 of these, I'll be thrilled (at least the first item on each list, and then maybe one additional item). If I get 5/6 or 6/6, I'll be ecstatic.

You're picking the best time to buy in DC. Sellers(including me) are struggling to get offers.

2016 Goals

1. Purchase a building for the school in China, so we can stop renting. 2. Get Yu Suzuki to help our school when I have dinner with him in September.3. Learn at least 1000 more Kanji, and focus on Japanese grammar. 4. Propose to a woman. 5. Hire 2 employee's for my painting company so I can free up time to focus on #4.6. Spend more time with friends and family. I was a hermit in 2015.7. Meet GhaleonOne. This has been a goal of mine every year, since 1995. I haven't given up yet!

WD RPG WD wrote:7. Meet GhaleonOne. This has been a goal of mine every year, since 1995. I haven't given up yet!

Hah - maybe I'll meet you in China someday then.

My goals are mostly related to my photography business:

1) Increasing my business income to at least 25% of my yearly income from my business vs "real" job, which is actually quite possible, if not a conservative estimate.2) Releasing a book of my work. I've become one of the best known Kansas landscape photographers in the state over the past few years, and see good potential in releasing a quality book of my work from it. This might slip to 2017 if I can't finish all my goals with it early enough in the year.3) I also plan on getting into a little better shape. I'm in fairly decent shape (I play soccer very regularly at competitive levels) but my eating habits have been suspect lately.4) Continue to help my wife with her wedding photography business. I second shoot her weddings along with website updates.5) Expand my SEO and Social Media knowledge both for work and my business.6) Going to a Copa America game this summer. The USA is hosting South American's competitive soccer tournament for it's 100th anniversary, and so Brazil, Argentina, etc. will be playing highly competitive games in the US. It's a money grab for both the South American and North American federations, and I'm sure is riddled with bribing and other illegal things that have gone on in FIFA in recent years, but I still can't pass up on the opportunity to see Brazil play competitively if I can. Preferably if the venue is some place like Seattle where I could couple it with a nice vacation.

Last year, my main goal was to buy a house with my wife, which we did. So yay for that.

I'd add a LunarNET goal of redesigning the website, but the 20th anniversary is December 2017 years away so I've got time! Though that would be next year's resolution... Crazy to think this site is pushing 20 years old...

So great news! I've already accomplished one of my goals (#4 - respond to, archive, or delete all old emails in my inboxes), we've already taken the first several concrete steps for another goal (#6 - buy a house), and now I'm brainstorming ways to tackle two others (#1 and #2 - Japanese and Spanish practice). This actually feels pretty good being this productive early in the year.

WD RPG WD wrote:You're picking the best time to buy in DC. Sellers(including me) are struggling to get offers.

Yeah I hope so, though my preference is to actually buy in July if we can help it (that's when our lease is ending, and the less time between the lease ending and when we move in, the better).

GhaleonOne wrote:I'd add a LunarNET goal of redesigning the website, but the 20th anniversary is December 2017 years away so I've got time! Though that would be next year's resolution... Crazy to think this site is pushing 20 years old...

Great! This dovetails into the work I've been wanting to do for two years now. Maybe once I get a few other things out of the way -- perhaps by March -- I can call Damon back here to light a fire under me and get the rest of this stuff done. (Except translating those magazine excerpts from Arlia. I'm already working on that and have about 50% of it translated. ...90% if I decide to just not bother with the novella part.)

WD RPG WD wrote:1. Purchase a building for the school in China, so we can stop renting. ...4. Propose to a woman. ...6. Spend more time with friends and family. I was a hermit in 2015....

WD -- those sound like great goals, in addition to the dozen major impressive things you're already doing {^^}. Though I dunno about #4, unless you already have someone in mind...?

Oh hey, I should be better about #6 too. You free this weekend? We should get together again if you're not too busy.

GhaleonOne wrote:1) Increasing my business income to at least 25% of my yearly income from my business vs "real" job, which is actually quite possible, if not a conservative estimate.2) Releasing a book of my work. I've become one of the best known Kansas landscape photographers in the state over the past few years, and see good potential in releasing a quality book of my work from it. This might slip to 2017 if I can't finish all my goals with it early enough in the year....

G1 those are also really great (and fun) goals. Especially #1 and #2 -- your nature photography is amazing (...actually I can't find a good enough adjective... stunning? brilliant? ...amazing will have to do) and it's really awesome seeing you turn that into your work. KF